New Years Eve 2012, we were having friends over, and the first set had arrrived, we were in the living room talking when the neighbor kid came over and delivered flowers and said him and his mom would be over in a second.

So Kyra and her friend went outside to pogo stick and wait for them (Kyra got a pogo stick for Christmas). A few minutes later Kyra comes in with her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide. I asked her what was wrong and she moved her hand.

And her mouth was filled with blood.

We ran to the sink, got her some ice, wiped the blood, spit some out, hugged her until we could see her teeth.

And the front tooth, adult tooth (in another context I might say permanent but that doesn’t seem right here), is pushed up her gums the length of her tooth. So she has one front tooth. Then a hole next to it. Immediately north of that hole, where the first front tooth is starting: The missing tooth. Hiding.

Things get a little vague here, but we decided an ER trip was the best way to go. Our friends left, Kim called people to tell them that they needed new New Years plans. And we were off to the ER.

The emergency room is not a fun place. Zoe and I dropped Kim and Kyra off at the front door, then walked in. Zoe was dead silent the whole time, and when she tried to talk she started crying. I asked her if she was worried about her sister and she could only nod her head.

We get to the ER and Kim and Kyra are already on the list, sitting in a chair waiting.

We wait for a few minutes, then I go up to ask for some bandages, because my little girl is bleeding everywhere. I am not hard to read apparently because the triage nurse (who to be fair was putting a bandage on a bleeding baby only second before) told me he’d get to us very soon. He filled out the paper work, then got her gauze and cleaned up a little. Checked for a concussion. She seems fine.

We wait in the ER. Across from us is a girl, 18-19?, sitting on a chair and sobbing. For a long time. It’s horrible. Not the crying, I mean we’re in the ER, at 9 oclock on new years eve, of course there is crying. No the worst part is the guy sitting next to her. About her age, sits right next to her. Never says a word to her. Doesn’t look at her. Doesn’t smile, doesn’t put a hand on her shoulder, doesn’t say or do anything to indicate that the person he presumably came to the emergency room with tonight is in any way in need of any kind of assistance. Or that she even exists. It’s horrifying. She finally gets called and they both go back into the depths so I know he could hear and see. Also a baby threw up, like a ton. Like “how did that baby have that much liquid in it?” throw up. Poor kid.

Kim calls the dentist to find out if there’s something we should do. And a few minutes later they call us back and say: Can you be at our gilbert office at 10?

Yes. Yes we can.

We leave the ER. Go to the dentists office. Walk around the empty office park in the freezing cold. Sit in the car in the warmth when, 5 minutes before 10, a car pulls up. It’s Kyra’s dentist, fresh back from rescuing his stuck son from the middle of the desert (really).

He lets us in the dental office, turns on the lights. Sits Kyra down, pokes around, keeps a running patter going, digs through the various tray’s looking for tools. Finally tells us he can move it back, but needs full support infrastructure. In the meantime puts temporary braces on Kyra to keep anything from moving, and gives us a prescription for antibiotics.

We fill the prescription. Buy every soft food we can find at wallgreens. Buy the girls fancy ice cream (Zoe picks vanilla, Kyra goes with Cookie Dough Peanut butter cup). Go home. Eat a dinner of appetizers. Play a few rounds of Taboo. Watch the ball drop, take the girls upstairs. Zoe falls asleep in my arms while I hug her waiting for Kim to say goodnight.

Hug Kyra goodnight. Her face is swollen and bloody. She falls asleep quick.

The next day we realize her nose is crooked. The doctor tells us it’s only cartilage and it may fix itself as the swelling goes down. The dentist fixes the tooth. Kyra gets Nitrous Oxide and shots, her whole face is numb.

That night I told her she was brave, and that I could tell she was scared when we were walking into the dentists office.

She told me:

“I was scared walking in, and waiting. I was scared while the dentist was doing it.”

I made Andrada style ribs on my birthday. They were delicious and now that I know how to do it expect them at future BBQ’s.

Me and Kim went to Peruvian food on Sunday. It was good, but not so much better than all of the other delicious food types out there that I’ll eat it a lot (I’m looking right at you julies chicken and waffles).

Me and the girls made a potato gun! The day after my birthday I took a day off and we went and got all of the stuff. They were expecting potato guns like wren and rebecca have, that shoot tiny little pieces of potatoes that they use to feed their turtles. The first time this thing shot out the girls were flabbergasted. That’s them standing next to the smashed remains of the first firing against the wall. The girls did the cutting and the gluing, and stuffed the potatoes down the barrel. But I wouldn’t let them light it.

I made marks bars for Zoe’s bake sale this weekend. I wanted to do something different and here’s what I came up with: <a href=”http://instagr.am/p/IyRojEklOQ/“>Marshmallow Marks Bar Sandwhiches</a>.

Bake two batches of <a href=”https://schulzone.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/marks-bars/“> and about 10 minutes into the baking cover one with small marshmallows. I have a pan that cooks a little slower than all of my other pans so I used that. with 3 minutes left to bake pull both batches out of the oven, put the one without marshmallows in the freezer until they’re cool enough to cut (2 minutes or so). Cut them out and put them on top of the marshmallow covered bars then stick the whole thing back in the oven. Cook for three more minutes. Let them cool for a while before you cut them.

I finally scored a header today! I’ve actually had lots of good chance recently. One I was running from midfield while somebody took the ball down the right, after the whole 40 yards they put the cross in and I got a strong head on it, but the keeper knocked it down. My momentum took me into the keeper and I turned and we both lunged for the ball. He knocked the ball to one side and me to the ground. I tried to back heel it from the ground but it went wide. If it would have gone in it would have been glorious. I missed one last week just over the top, on a goal that’s about 2 feet shorter than normal.

Today I put one in that the keeper parried and then finally I fed the ball out right from my position at right back, then kept going through the middle. He came to the right and I went with him in the middle. I pulled up at the penalty spot and drifted towards the back post. The cross came and I got up enough to drive it down (small goals again) and in. Goal!

I made up this desert because Kim was talking about how the crust was the best part of the pie. So here’s the recipe:

1 Package Graham Crackers
1 Stick butter
1/3 cup sugar

Crush the graham crackers, melt the butter. Mix it all together. Mash it down into a pan. Cook it at 350 for 8 minutes.

I covered them with white chocolate, because we had a lot of white chocolate chips laying around. But I think nutella would have been perfect. Or you could cut them up and smear individual toppings on each one. Or you don’t need a topping (I thought they might not stay together without one, but that did not turn out to be the case: They are solid)

Passes with my head have actually been pretty routine lately, I’ve gotten used to it. The beating a player on the dribble was dumb luck. I was on the line with the ball and took a step inside, he bit and I went down the line. I’m usually terrible on the ball, pathetically so.

I came within 3 inches of scoring a header though. A cross came through and I got up in the air and hit it towards the goal, it went over the post by an inch. The goals we play on are slightly smaller than regulation, and if it had been full size it would have been in. Oh well.

I had a chance at a volley yesterday too: Cross to the middle and I had my right foot up to get it, but there was a defender there and he had his foot up too and pushed mine out of the way (we both missed, the ball bounced through and the keeper chased it and got it).

I’m going to have real trouble with the hat trick, because the weather is great so more people are playing which means I’ve been in lots of 8-8 full field games. When it’s that crowded I don’t get nearly as many opportunities, and my finishing sucks so I tend to blow a large portion of the ones I get (I flat out missed a ball yesterday. Give and go into the box and the return pass came onto my left foot headed toward the goal, all I had to do was poke it in the goal away from the keeper, but I was running parallel to it and stabbed at it with my left and missed. I recovered and poked it with my right but the keeper had closed it down and stopped it easily. Like I said earlier: Pathetically bad on the ball.)